The King's Achievement eBook

He had, indeed, a certain excuse for going, for a
despatch-rider had come down from London with papers
for him from Sir Thomas Cromwell, and it was not hard
to assume a serious face and announce that he was
recalled by affairs; and there was sufficient truth
in it, too, for one of the memoranda bore on the case
of Elizabeth Barton, the holy maid of Kent, and announced
her apprehension. Cromwell however, did not actually
recall him, but mentioned the fact of her arrest, and
asked if he had heard much said of her in the country,
and what the opinion of her was in that district.

* * * *
*

The drive up to London seemed very short to him now;
he went slowly through the bundle of papers on which
he had to report, annotating them in order here and
there, and staring out of the window now and again
with unseeing eyes. There were a dozen cases on
which he was engaged, which had been forwarded to
him during his absence in the country—­the
priest at High Hatch was reported to have taken a wife,
and Cromwell desired information about this; Ralph
had ridden out there one day and gossipped a little
outside the parsonage; an inn-keeper a few miles to
the north of Cuckfield had talked against the divorce
and the reigning Consort; a mistake had been made
in the matter of a preaching license, and Cranmer
had desired Cromwell to look into it; a house had been
sold in Cheapside on which Ralph had been told to
keep a suspicious eye, and he was asked his opinion
on the matter; and such things as these occupied his
time fully, until towards four o’clock in the
afternoon his carriage rolled up to the horse-ferry
at Lambeth, and he thrust the papers back into his
bag before stepping out.

On arriving at his own little house in Westminster,
the rent of which was paid by his master, he left
his other servants to carry up the luggage, and set
out himself again immediately with Morris in a hackney
carriage for Chancery Lane.

As he went, he found himself for the hundredth time
thinking of the history of the man to whom he was
going.

Sir Thomas Cromwell was beginning to rise rapidly
from a life of adventure and obscurity abroad.
He had passed straight from the Cardinal’s service
to the King’s three years before, and had since
then been knighted, appointed privy-councillor, Master
of the Jewel-house, and Clerk of the Hanaper in the
Court of Chancery. At the same time he was actively
engaged on his amazing system of espionage through
which he was able to detect disaffection in all parts
of the country, and thereby render himself invaluable
to the King, who, like all the Tudors, while perfectly
fearless in the face of open danger was pitiably terrified
of secret schemes.

And it was to this man that he was confidential agent!
Was there any limit to the possibilities of his future?

Ralph found a carriage drawn up at the door and, on
enquiry, heard that his master was on the point of
leaving; and even as he hesitated in the entrance,
Cromwell shambled down the stairs with a few papers
in his hand, his long sleeveless cloak flapping on
each step behind him, and his felt plumed cap on his
head in which shone a yellow jewel.